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On the Gunsmoke Set/continued spots inside the cavernous studio.
Arness sprawled out awkwardly on
at a table .in Kitty's Long Branch_ a cot in the small portable dressing
saloon, scripts in front of them. room on the set, his knees pulled up,
Because they are so familiar with his big hat resting on his chest.
the characters they play, the show's "I've got a good deal," he said. "I
four regulars don't bother to learn had a five-year contract with CBS but
their lines as written. They read a we broke it off at four and wrote a
script to get the feel of it, then read new one. Now I own a chunk of the
it through again at a weekly Monday show and I'm setting up my own pro-
conference, with the director and pro- duction company We'll continue with
ducer sitting in. The actors change the Gunsmoke, maybe even to a seventh
lines-a word here, a phrase there- season. We'll also create and develop
to be more "comfortable." When the a couple of series."
4irector calls for the first "take," they
have the dialog down pat. Arness had recently made the jump
The early-morning run-throughs, from actor to company president, and
when everybody is fresh, are occa- the effects were showing. The Gun-
sionally enlivened by quiet horseplay smoke cast and crew were giving him
In the initial scene this particular the needle, addressing him as "Mr.
morning, a "Big Daddy" sort of char- President" and asking permission to
acter has caught his errant son swil- speak. Later in the day, when he stood
ling whisky in the saloon and is run- alone in the middle of the long indoor
ning him out of the place, intent on Western street reading a line, the
lambasting him out on the street. crew broke into a calculated storm of
Marshal Dillon rises and follows them. wry applause. Arness swept his hat off
and bowed low, grinning amiably.
As Arness rose from his chair on the It was a slow day and a rather dull
first run-through, Amanda put her one. The smell of fresh straw and
hand on his arm and ad-libbed three horses lay heavily in the atmos-
solemnly, "Matt, be careful." phere. Desultory gin-rummy games
"No," said McLaglen, painfully re- continued from morning until night.
calling the dialog from a Maverick On other days, in other seasons, the
parody of Gunsmoke, "I wouldn't say "action" on the set had been a ·bit
that if I were you." livelier. There was the time, during a
"Oh, well," Amanda said. "It was tense scene, that Arness, as Dillon,
just a happy thought." handed a note to Dennis Weaver, as
Arness, grimacing and fussing over Chester, with the order to "Read this."
his script, suddenly came to a line that Weaver took a look at the note and
appealed to him. "Hey," he said, pok- exploded with laughter, destroying
ing Amanda, "I can get a lot of sex what would have been a perfect
appeal into this line." "take." What Arness had done was to
"I can't stand it," she groaned. scribble something unprintable across
"All right, boys," McLaglen called the paper.
out, "let's go. Let's fade in on Matt." Weaver got his -revenge not long
"This will be a picture," Beche after. With the help of some of the
shouted. "Lose all your watches, duck crew he jacked up Arness's sports
your cigarets, beer 'em up. Let's go." car so that the rear wheels were
The scene, involving numerous cues, an inch off the ground. Arness, not
went off without a hitch on the first noticing, jumped into the car to head
take. "Cut and print. it," McLaglen home after the day's shooting. The
shouted. The actors broke for cool wheels . spun,... the car stood_ still and
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